[CMA R] Ofcom local radio rules put to test

[Michelle McGuire]

Ofcom local radio rules put to test

Maggie Brown
Thursday March 9, 2006

Ofcom's radio licensing panel is set to consider a key case today  
testing the boundaries of how you define a local radio station: can a  
local station shut down its office in its licence area, yet still  
hold onto the frequency, and run the radio station remotely?

The commercial radio sector is watching intently to see how far  
Ofcom's new flexible approach to defining local stations can be  
stretched, and have kept what one local radio expert describes as "an  
ominous silence" over the issue.

UKRD, a small, privately owned commercial group with around 11  
licences, runs the Gloucestershire town of Stroud's Star 107.93.
It has asked permission to shut down station's offices in the town,  
to save money, and move operations to Cheltenham 13 miles away, where  
it also operates Star 107.5.

The group argues that Ofcom's new measures of localness which analyse  
the broadcast output of a station - and have just been applied  
successfully to three commercial stations - should allow it to go ahead.

In response to Ofcom's consultations on Preparing for the Future,  
UKRD told the regulator last year that the Stroud station lost  
£142,000 in the financial year ending September 2004.

It says it could save £45,000 by sharing the Cheltenham studios, that  
the two towns are only a 20-minute commute apart, with residents  
affected by similar issues, such as flooding on the Severn plain and  
the M5 motorway. It says it would still run a separate news and  
information service for Stroud.

UKRD also argued that listeners can now access local radio via  
websites, phone and text and that visits by local listeners to  
studios "are not as regular as Ofcom may think".

The request also has to be considered next week by the Ofcom content  
board before a final decision is made.

One problem for Ofcom is that it is continuing to roll out a  
licensing programme of smaller stations for towns and cities, and  
finding willing takers. This fuels the rival argument, that if a  
company cannot successfully run a local commercial radio station it  
should hand the licence back for someone else to have a go.

Source: Media Guardian
http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,1726431,00.html


-- 
Michelle McGuire
Editor, Airflash Magazine
Development Officer

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http://www.commedia.org.uk

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